Close Brothers Group disposes of data centre at zero cost using new in-house team

The leading merchant banking group, which provides lending, deposit taking, wealth management services and securities trading, migrated its existing data centre services from the fifth floor of Tolworth Tower in Surrey, and then had to handle the secure destruction and recovery of all equipment within seven weeks.

The tight deadline suggested a pure disposal process would be required; however, Close Brothers Technology Services, which managed the entire process, identified that almost half of the hardware had a significant remarketing value once the data was securely removed. This meant that all migration costs could be covered.

Ian McVicar (pictured), managing director, Close Brothers Technology Services, commented, ‘We approached the work as we would for one of our customers, where we aim to help them gain visibility of the true cost and value of their technology. Our first step was to identify the quantity and specification of every server and networking device, and then work out which assets could be resold. These particular items were wiped to government standards on site, with complete chain of custody and certification ahead of remarketing. The remaining assets had storage destroyed before certified environmental disposal in accordance with WEEEDirectiv.